Good Cop, Bad Cop
by Moonprincess92
Summary: Aurors Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy are partners. Together, they catch killers. You know, when they aren't trying to kill each other, that is. :Series of connected oneshots R/S NextGen:
1. If You're Reading This

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy, or Aurors. Or cop shows.

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Good Cop, Bad Cop.

Aurors Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy are partners. Together, they catch killers. You know, when they aren't trying to kill each other, that is. :Series of oneshots R/S NextGen:

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ONE: If You're Reading This.

"Hey," she called after him.

With her stuck in a hospital bed, Scorpius Malfoy didn't want to turn back around. Seeing Rose out for the count like this unnerved him. Sure, it was a hell of a sight better than when she was collapsed in a pool of blood in an underground cellar, but he still didn't think he was quite ready to admit how scared he'd been then. And c'mon, his emotions would be _all over_ his face (Rose had always teased him about that).

"Yeah?" he said without turning around.

"Oh, just look at me, would you?" Rose said, frustration clear in her voice.

He took a deep breath. Ah, he was in too deep anyway. Might as well make this worse, right? He spun on the spot, still halfway to the door of her private (and heavily guarded) room at St Mungo's hospital. Rose didn't look any better than she had done five minutes ago, but at least she didn't look worse, right? Her ginger curls were still dirty and matted, in a tangled mess around her bruised and battered face. Having suffered multiple cuts and stabs to her chest and arms, he tried his hardest not to wince whenever he accidentally caught sight of one of the bandages, particularly the one he knew that extended all the way up her neck. She was pale and shaky, and the complete opposite to the kind of Rose that he knew.

_His_ Auror Rose Weasley was ferocious and determined! She _never_ let something stop her … probably the reason that she'd managed to survive the torture long enough for him to finally rescue her.

If it hadn't been for him in the first place …

"Seriously, stop bloody _looking_ at me like that," Rose said, eyes narrowing at him.

"Shut up! I'm not looking at you like anything," Scorpius was quick to counter, crossing his arms defensively.

"Yeah, and we both know _that's_ a lie," Rose scoffed. She gestured with a hand at the chair beside her bed, before saying, "Just sit the hell back down, ok? We both know that you want to."

Blimey, there really was no arguing with her, was there? He reluctantly shuffled his way over, sitting down huffily. He'd known since day one what signing up for the Auror Office meant; it was a career full of boring stakeouts and gruelling training, breaking gut-wrenching news to victims' families, duelling with suspects and the occasional emotional breakdown. It was _constant_ fights with his partner, getting frustrated beyond belief when she would once again go off the books and he would have to somehow fix her mistakes. Most days, the job made it worth it.

Today … he'd almost considered quitting.

"So," he said eventually, doing his best to keep his voice casual, and not all high-pitched and strained like it had been since she'd been taken. "how's it going?"

"Oh, y'know," Rose made a face. "Not bad."

"I hear you got kidnapped and tortured?"

"Yeah, but it was nothing I couldn't handle," Rose still somehow managed to smirk at him.

"Seriously, Weasley," Scorpius said then, leaning an elbow on the edge of her bed and unable to keep up the light teasing that they were usually so fond of interspersing with full-blown arguments. "I know you don't want me to say it, but I'm going to anyway – I'm sorry, _I'm so sorry_ – I shouldn't have under-estimated Fuller! I should have anticipated him going after you, especially since we were so close to catching him – I should have had protection placed on you, I should have been there to protect you–"

"Oh, Merlin's bloody beard …" Rose cut in, exasperatedly. "Are you done, yet?"

"Well, I could also mention that if I'd just trusted your instinct, we might have been able to make an arrest sooner and this never would have happened," Scorpius tried, weakly.

"_Malfoy_," Rose shot him a look which was still terrifying, even with the black eye. "c'mon, where would we be if I wasn't making crazy assumptions and theories and you weren't there to shoot me down and keep things realistic?"

"We wouldn't be in a hospital ward, I'm telling you that."

"Stop it!" Rose snapped. Despite the many blood-replenishing potions she'd been administered and the magical sealing for her wounds, Rose _still_ managed to reach out a hand and smack him upside the head. He'd rather lost track of how many times over their partnership that he'd been subjected to her physical abuse … though he'd never realised how much he would miss it, until now.

"You're not going to make me stop thinking it was my fault!" Scorpius insisted, grabbing at her hand to stop her after giving a yelp. "I seriously could have prevented all this–"

"If this was anyone's fault, it was mine!" Rose exclaimed hotly, fighting to get her hand back. "I was the one who ignored orders, refused to listen, like I always do! You always said that you knew it'd get me into more trouble than just extra paperwork one day, and you were right!"

"We're _never_ going to agree on this, are we?"

"Do we ever?" Rose answered. Finally, she managed to snatch her hand back; however, the movement seemed to be too jarring for her recent injuries and immediately afterwards, she cringed with a gasp of pain. Scorpius was on his feet immediately, heart pounding, as he reached out and took hold of her shoulders gently, helping her ease back onto the hospital issued pillows.

"… will you _please_ try to not kill yourself now?" he asked, desperately.

"I make no such promise …" Rose muttered through her gritted teeth. When Scorpius managed to supress his nervous tittering and had sat back down again, Rose eventually opened her eyes once more and turned to face him.

"I'm still mad at you," she assured him. "but … you going to explain how I ended up being kidnapped by our least likely suspect, or what?"

Of course. To the point and completely ignoring the fact she was talking to her close partner, who she had been working alongside with for the better part of four years. For all the emotion she had in her voice, she could have been talking to a brick wall. However, the sheer fact that she had still allowed him to fuss over her, to help her settle back into her pillows, was enough to remind him that there was still some respect for their partnership in there somewhere.

"The victim's sister," Scorpius decided it was a lot safer to just play along. Things were heavy enough as it was. "Rebecca? Her story fell apart once I started hounding her after you were taken. She'd been protecting her sister's memory, but Kylie Newbury had died refusing to give up Rebecca's location. I'm guessing you didn't either?"

"No," Rose said, voice unnaturally soft. It made him glance up at her for a moment, never having heard her sound so sincere before.

"I … I mean, well, once we got the full story from her, about how her ex was still trying to find her, hurt her, it was easy enough to lock down an arrest. The hardest part was figuring out where he'd taken you. You can thank Miles and the forensics team for that one, figured out which house it was just by the type of wood it was made out of. Wood! Can you believe it?"

Rose looked like she wanted to smile at his words, but she stamped it down, looking away. He was pretty used to that by now, after four years of pretending that Rose didn't secretly amuse him and vice versa … but Scorpius caught it sometimes, a slight tugging at the corner of her mouth, a teasing glint in her eyes, the odd scathing comment that bordered on flirtatious and made his chest lurch …

He didn't think he'd ever forget the cold dread that had sunk into his bones the second he'd gone over to her flat to argue some more, and realised that she'd been taken. With the door left open and signs of a struggle, he'd called it in with a shaking voice and had been forced to push his way through the crowd of forensic Healers arriving to analyse the scene. He'd needed to reach the outside pavement, needed to breath in deep lungful's of air that didn't help at all, because his Weasley was gone and he didn't know if …

"Anyway!" he cut in over his own thoughts, quickly. "You know, it's probably a good thing that you were taken instead of me."

"Oh, really?" Rose snorted. "Enlighten me."

"Well, for starters, my pain tolerance is, like, zero," he pointed out. "Don't you remember the case with the cactus?"

"Remember? I swear you split my eardrums with all that screaming!"

"It was the pines, I'm fairly certain it's hazardous for them to be stuck in like that–! Uhhh, anyway," he added hastily at the look on her face. "I mean, the point is that I would've been utterly useless in that situation. You've always been the strong one out of the two of us."

"I think you give me more credit than I deserve, Malfoy," Rose said, glancing away.

"No, really!" Scorpius insisted. "I get a cactus embedded in my skin and I cry a bloody river, but you – you broke your arm once, yet you just kept on running and still tackled that suspect like it was no big deal!"

"That bloke had it coming," Rose shrugged. "That was the one who murdered his wife because she was sleeping with his dad, right?"

"Yeah, and he's in Azkaban for life, thanks to you," he answered.

"Look, I'm not … I'm not _that_ strong," Rose mentioned, quietly. "When … ok, you are not allowed to say _anything_ in response to what I tell you," she suddenly added. "Say even one word, and I swear I'll throttle you right here in his hospital room. Got it?"

"Loud and clear," Scorpius couldn't help but needle her a little bit with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, but continued. "When I was … when he had me … I wouldn't tell him where we were keeping Rebecca. He could tell that he was getting nothing out of me, so after debating a bit, he decided to try a new tactic. He said … that he was going to find you. And if I didn't tell him where she was, he would chop off your fingers, one by one, before cutting you open, letting you die slowly and painfully."

It was one of those instances where Scorpius felt like he should probably look away … but couldn't seem to be able to. Like a train wreck, his eyes were stuck on Rose, on the way she was biting her lip like she did whenever she was trying to work something out in her head, and the way she was looking slightly vulnerable like she only occasionally let herself be when she was around him.

"I was going to tell him," Rose admitted, almost in a whisper. "So whatever you might think, I wasn't _strong_. Hell, I was going to tell a murderer where to find his next victim!"

"Because you didn't want to hurt me," Scorpius said, unable to sort out what was going on inside his chest. "Weasley …"

"Hey!" Rose snapped. "Not one WORD in response, remember? Or I'll do more than throttle!"

Oh, he didn't need to say a thing. He knew that his smug grin would be insufferable enough for her. Sure enough, she basically groaned at the sight, trying to reach out and smack him again, though he simply ducked out of the way this time. It wasn't often she admitted that she actually cared about him – in fact, it was so rare, that Scorpius often mistook those times as her joking anyway – so when he did figure out what she was saying, he had learnt to savour it.

One of these days, he _really_ ought to figure out how to tell her he cared, too.

He didn't think he'd ever forget bursting his way into that cellar. His eyes had immediately gone to Rose crumpled on the floor with her arms curled in on herself, clearly trying to stop herself from bleeding with no wand before she passed out. He'd barely even noticed his team behind him apprehending their murdering ex-boyfriend, David Fuller, slamming his face into the ground so they could arrest him. Scorpius had simply sprinted to Rose's side, blind terror seizing him and catching him in his throat as he yelled her name, over and over. By the time the Healers had arrived to transfer her to St Mungo's, he had been covered in her blood, and he'd practically screamed when his supervisor tried to make him come back to the office and give his statement first.

He'd waited the entire two hours and twenty three minutes it had taken to get her stable again, pacing outside the theatre room.

"Look, what're you still doing here?" Rose eventually huffed. "You should be busy interrogating Fuller and getting a full confession, not sitting here and worrying yourself into a coma about me!"

"Look, for once can you just humour me?" Scorpius rolled his eyes. "My partner nearly died today, give me a break!"

"I didn't _nearly die_–" Rose scoffed.

"Weasley, you basically bled out," Scorpius mentioned, flatly.

She snapped her mouth shut.

"Well," she eventually said. "I'm still talking, aren't I?"

"Yeah, I don't think you get it," Scorpius said, impatiently. "I'm not talking about a suspect holding you up at wand point, or having a curse shot at you. I've been in this profession a long time, and I've had all that and more happen to me on a regular basis. Hell, with _you_ as my partner, it's a wonder we've both managed to survive this long! I'm saying that now, it got to the point where you had _literally stopped breathing_, and I seriously thought that you were going to die right there in my arms! You have no bloody clue how TERRIFIED I was, so don't you dare just sit there, claiming that it was no big deal!"

Oh, Merlin. He hadn't meant for all that to come out. With the atmosphere in the room so tense already, he'd even been trying to downplay the hurt he'd felt at her flippant remarks. But he hadn't been able to ignore this one. Rose finally had the decency to look sorry, avoiding his gaze for a long moment. Then, he noticed her face harden as she decided something. With the bruises and bandages, the face looked thunderous.

_That _was a Rose he knew well.

"Fine," she said, suddenly glancing up to face him. "I know that I'm not being fair to you, and I'm sorry. I know you care, like … _really_, I know you care," she said, voice almost softer, surprising him enough into looking up. "So I'm going to tell you about what happen to me, ok?"

He couldn't do anything but nod.

"He got me by surprise, was already waiting in my flat. The _only_ reason he managed to get me, right?" she added, and Scorpius almost wanted to laugh at the hint of her wounded pride in there. "He knocked me out and I woke up in that cellar. I didn't even know who had taken me until he showed up."

He knew why she took that moment to pause; what happened next was painfully obvious. However, she gritted her teeth and continued,

"Look, it hurt. I can't really describe it, there's no way I could, so it just … hurt like a _bitch_, Malfoy. He had me immobilised on the floor, and used my own wand to control the knife. Had to give him credit for that; no fingerprints, magical or otherwise," she gave a weak smile. "You know me: no respect for a sloppy murderer. Anyway … eventually, he stopped 'cause I still wasn't talking. And there was a point between threatening me and threatening you when he left me by myself," she shrugged at his confused face. "Yeah, I dunno why, but he was seriously frustrated then, so it must've been to try and come up with a new tactic. Guess he didn't think I would have the strength to move. But I did," Rose's determined face faltered slightly as she glanced over at the table next to her bed. There wasn't much on top of it; a glass of water, her wand that had eventually been recovered at Fuller's hideout where he'd taken it from her, and what appeared to be a blood-stained and scrunched up piece of paper. "There was a pen nearby. And I remembered that I had a shopping list stuffed down my bra."

Scorpius didn't know what Rose wanted him to say there, or even where she was going with this, so he stayed silent. Sure enough, he noticed the faint outline of various groceries on the outside of the folded paper. Eventually, Rose apparently decided that she wasn't going to wait for him to reply.

"I thought I was dying, Malfoy," she said, voice going quiet. "So I … wrote something."

"You were bleeding from multiple stab wounds, and you _still_ found it in you to write a dying letter?" Scorpius said, staring. This woman was amazing, sometimes. Absolutely mental … but yeah, totally amazing.

Rose just shrugged. "I knew I couldn't go out without saying _something_. But, turns out, the something I wrote was for you."

Suddenly, that paper seemed to scream out to him all the more louder.

"I want you to read it."

"_What_–?" Scorpius practically croaked. "N-no! No, Weasley, I can't–"

"You have to, ok?" Rose insisted.

"No, I don't want to read anything you had to say when you thought you were dying," Scorpius was absolutely firm on that matter. However, Rose reached out then and caught hold of the edge of his sleeve. It was only a slight tug, but it made him falter.

"Please," she said. "Just read the bloody thing, ok? I can't stay alive, knowing that there's a bunch of things I was only brave enough to tell you when I thought I wasn't gonna be around to address them."

Only the hand at his sleeve stopped him from ripping up the letter on the spot. He wasn't sure he could do it; read the words that she would have only admitted on her deathbed. But he understood her point, and he accidentally made the mistake of looking at her. The bruises on her face made him reach out and take the letter written on the back of a shopping list in dodgy, barely legible handwriting. He gingerly unfolded the letter in his hands, trying to avoid the spots of blood … though of course none of that mattered once he started reading.

_Malfoy – _

_I'm dead. I know I'm dead. No sugar coating it, I screwed up, and you won't rescue me in time. And yeah, I'm sorry about that, but it'll be my fault, so stop hating yourself like I know you are, ok? _

_I don't even know why I'm writing this. I won't have much longer, and I just want to scream and never stop. But I want you to know: I've fought every step of the way. I swear I haven't told him anything, and no matter what he says when he gets back, I promise I won't give up. I swear, I'm gonna hold out as long as I possibly can. _

_I can only imagine your face when you read this so, here goes … our partnership means a lot to me, ok? And I know I give you shit for it, I know I yell at you and cause a lot of unnecessary paperwork, but there's a reason that I requested we stay partners after that second case, and it's not just so I was allowed back out into the field again. It was because I wanted to keep working with you. _

_Screw it. I love you. _

_Now kindly burn this letter after you read it, so no one ever finds out. Kay? _

– _Weasley. _

He didn't know where to look.

His hands were still holding the letter, but he wasn't really reading it anymore. He couldn't look at Rose, couldn't look anywhere except at the smudging letters which were beginning to blur together the more he stared. Only minutes later, perhaps after stuffing the letter back down her top, Fuller would have come back with a new tactic: that he was going to hurt Scorpius unless she told. And she would be willing to talk, only to pass out as Scorpius and his team finally burst in to rescue her. She was _willing to give up_, after so determinedly insisting that she never would! And having known Rose Weasley and worked with her for so long, Scorpius knew that a little thing like giving up was something that she _never_ did lightly. The fact that she _did_ was …

_It was because I wanted to keep working with you. _

_I love you. _

Oh, Rose.

"So, y'know," Rose was shrugging. "You can go ahead and kill me now–"

He didn't even care what she was saying. Tossing the letter lightly onto her bed, he quickly leaned over and wrapped his arms around her. He was torn between not wanting to hurt her, and wanting to perhaps haul her into him, pushing his face into her neck, breathing her in and maybe pressing a light kiss to her neck, seeing where it led … but perhaps it was best to stay away from analogies like that for now. He didn't let Rose have enough time to react properly, lest she strangle him, so he simply pulled back and sat down hesitantly on the edge of her bed, unable to help the smile on his face.

"Auror Weasley, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but you're sort of incredible."

Rose, it seemed, was still rather gob smacked, which was to be fair. He could count on one hand the amount of times that they had hugged.

"I …" she began. "Uh …"

"Look, we've been through a lot, you and I," Scorpius told her, twisting his fingers together. "I mean, torture, serial killers, stalking, kidnapping … that one time we got buried alive together?"

"I thought we promised to never talk about that?" Rose said, weakly.

Oh, yes. It was a vivid memory. After their investigation had gotten a little too close for the murderer's liking, they had accidentally found themselves knocked out on their way out of the office and unceremoniously dumped in a eight by four wooden box together, buried alive in a Yorkshire cemetery. Trapped in such close quarters until they had eventually been found and rescued, it had only been their hands tied behind their backs that stopped Rose from beating him to death before they could run out of air instead. He hadn't even discovered how claustrophobic Rose could be until that incident, and he'd spent the entire time they'd been trapped simply talking to her, trying to calm her down …

Course, there had also been a panicked (and hot) we're-going-to-die kiss thrown in there, which they _still_ never talked about, two years later …

"Ah, well," Scorpius shrugged. "Maybe it's about time we did?"

The look of utter panic on her face basically made it worth it. Scorpius was sort of wondering where on earth this bout of bravery was coming from, but it was obvious; the two of them had been teetering on the edge of something for years, and this was probably about as close to a confession that he would ever get. The hell if he wasn't going to take that chance! He was so tempted to reach out and touch her, to gently stroke her cheek with his thumb. Normally so stoic, he'd be able to tell that Rose would be trying her hardest not to react, but c'mon, it'd be his job to notice these things; the small hitch in her breath would be a giveaway …

Y'know, if he actually got up the courage.

"You … you want to do this _now_?" Rose practically stammered, though that couldn't be right; Rose never stumbled over anything. "I nearly died, Malfoy, perhaps now isn't the best time to be admitting anything–"

"Oh, so _now_ you admit that you nearly died?," Scorpius cut in, hotly. "Well, I'm _sorry_, but forgive me if I was trying to be as brave as you are!"

"I think you're forgetting that Gryffindor wasn't your house!"

"_Weasley_–" He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. This woman was seriously totally _impossible_. "You wanted me to read that letter, because you couldn't stand only having the courage to write it when you thought you were dying. Well, this is something I never thought I'd say unless I was dying and screw it all if I'm not going to be as brave as you!"

"Malfoy–"

"I love you!"

Oh, Jesus. He actually SAID it!

The look on Rose's face was a strange mixture of so many emotions, Scorpius wasn't entirely sure he could figure them all out. He suddenly felt rather self-conscious, despite the fact that Rose's letter to him had admitted the exact same thing. Never the one for dramatics and emotions, Scorpius had been determined since day one that he'd _never_ tell how he really felt towards his partner. Besides, their partnership had never really been about that sort of thing; sure, it had always been there, a tense undercurrent that effected every thing they did, but at the end of the day, they needed to get the job done. Complicating things by taking a chance on love was simply _never_ an option.

Sure, they cared about each other. _That_ much they were willing to admit in those small moments of facing down death on the job. But this …

"I'm sort of starting to wonder why I thought this was a good idea …" he admitted, probably looking a little shell-shocked.

"Me, too," Rose said, faintly.

"In that case," Scorpius forced himself to glance away, to hastily stumble to his feet and head for the door. "I'll, uh, just head on out then, and I take back everything I said! Clearly, this is something else that we should _never_ mention again."

"Oh, definitely."

"In that case," he nodded. "See you when you're fit for duty again, Auror Weasley!"

Stupid, stupid, _stupid_. Seriously, this was the second time that he was attempting to escape this room! He had almost been half out of the door, cursing himself to hell and back for bailing, however, when she spoke up.

"_Wait_," she called out. He froze, hand even outstretched to take the doorknob. He took a deep breath, before turning back around. Rose was wincing, looking like she would much rather hide under the bed than face whatever this thing was between them, but she still carried on.

"This is getting ridiculous," she said to him.

"Not arguing with you, there."

"Trust me," she said, face going pale, which was a pretty incredible feat, considering that she was white enough already. "I'd much rather bury this like we normally do, but … we've gone too far, this time. It's out. It's been said. If we run away at this point, _again_, then what kind of Aurors would be be?"

"Pretty shit ones, I suppose," Scorpius said.

Rose just snorted at that. "Fair enough. So," She gave him that vivacious, determined look that he often saw in her eyes; the look she got right before she ran a suspect down, or yelled at him for getting in her way again. The look that drove him crazy every time he saw it. "In that case, hey, I love you too and yeah, I nearly died today."

Heart hammering, Scorpius grinned. "What're you gonna do about it?"

"Me? You're forgetting that I'm the one stuck in this hospital bed!" Rose pointed out. "No, what _you_ are gonna do is get over here and snog my face off before I get a hold of my wand and shove it up your arse!"

It took him all but half a second to make the decision, and another to stride determinedly across the room. He reached out and held her head gently, avoiding her cut neck. He knew he needed to be gentle and calm and a million other things that Rose Weasley wasn't, but he didn't care; he leaned down and kissed her before he could even really think about it. He threaded his fingers into her hair, feeling basically everything _explode_ inside of him. She let out a contented sort of noise before reaching up and tugging on his collar, trying to pull him closer. Ohhh, he didn't want to hurt her, but those lips were incredible, and Rose would almost certainly kick his arse before he could ever hurt her himself. There was no telling how long he'd wanted this, and the way she held on, like she would never let go …

Screw it. He opened himself up and poured _everything_ into that kiss. Besides, when had going against what Rose Weasley said _ever_ been a good thing?

-Fin.

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A/N: So I love me a good cop show. And without a doubt, _Castle_ will always be my favourite. I watched an episode where Beckett writes a letter to her partner/fiancé, unsure whether she's going to survive or not, and naturally, I thought of Rose and Scorpius (because when don't I?). As a result, THIS oneshot came about!

Then, I sort of went insane and came up with other oneshot ideas which took place in the same universe. When I realised that I had quite a few, I decided to make them all just one story. I don't promise regular updates for this, they'll probably just come out whenever they happen to. Sorry about that!

Still, I hope you all liked it! Please, I'd love it if you would review and let me know what you think. :)

Until next time -

- Moon. :D


	2. Buried

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy, or Aurors. Or cop shows.

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Good Cop, Bad Cop.

Aurors Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy are partners. Together, they catch killers. You know, when they aren't trying to kill each other, that is. :Series of oneshots R/S NextGen:

**Warning:** This one features characters being buried alive, along with the natural panic this would cause and some dark thoughts.

**Also Note:** This story takes place roughly two years before the previous.

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TWO: Buried.

The first thing that Auror Scorpius Malfoy became aware of was the stabbing pain in his shoulders.

"What in god's name …?" he groaned. There was a dull roar in his head and he could barely remember what day it was, let alone what had happened. Maybe he'd hit the Firewhiskey a bit too hard at an office party again? He considered the idea as he rolled over … or, well, _tried_ to roll over. Immediately, something was in his way and as he opened his eyes, he quickly realised that an out-of-control office party probably _wasn't_ the reason for this situation. Wherever he was, it was pitch black and from what he could guess, he'd hit the side of something _hard and wooden_.

Brilliant! He was in a box of some kind. Like _that_ hadn't happened enough times.

He decided to take a moment to make sure that everything that should be attached and working, still was. Two arms, two legs, his head … admittedly pounding. Jesus, what the hell _had_ hit him that hard? It hadn't been a Stunner, his brain was throbbing too much for that! For a moment, he considered a good ol' clonking on the head, but what self-respecting criminal would seriously revert to Muggle violence?

A desperate one, maybe? Wait –

Oh. Oh, dear.

Trying not to jump to too many conclusions, Scorpius determined that while his legs were free, his arms were tied behind his back at the wrists, explaining why his shoulders were in utter agony. To try and ease some of the pressure, he rolled onto his other side, away from the wooden side of the box – and promptly half rolled on top of his unconscious partner.

Well, he assumed that it was Rose with him in that box, seeing as she let out a groan and he yelped, "Sorry!" the moment he felt his body press up against hers. His heart rate starting to increase, he shuffled back hastily, lest Rose wake up in attack-mode (it certainly wouldn't be the first time).

It was sort of starting to come back to him, now. Yes … they had been leaving the office together, arguing like usual over theories and whether their prime suspect was likely to co-operate. Rose had refused to believe that William Harper even suspected that he was currently being tailed, mostly because that would mean that her entire plan of action would be ground to a halt. And Auror Rose Weasley certainly did not just _stop_ when danger arose; how ludicrous! He had just snapped at her to actually think about her safety for once in her bloody life, and Rose had ground to a halt, spinning around and giving him a blazing look in her eyes that had almost stunned him into silence, when …

"Malfoy …?" Rose's voice groaned out. "That you?"

"Yeah," he answered, still lying on his side next to her; not that he could go anywhere else. "You ok?"

"Shut up," Rose snapped and he rolled his eyes as she tried to roll over herself. After hitting the other side of the box, and quickly realising that he was in the way of getting any further, it didn't take long for him to sense her slightly panicked eyes through the darkness. "Where the hell are we?"

"Uh, while I believe it would be counter-productive to panic in this situation–"

"Malfoy!"

"Well …" he hesitated. "it appears that we are trapped inside a wooden box."

"No shit!" Rose grumbled. "I don't suppose you've already come up with a plan to get us out of this, seeing as it was your fault to begin with? We _have_ to get out of here – have you got your wand?"

"_My fault_–? Weasley, we were knocked unconscious before being thrown in a _sealed box_!" Scorpius pointed out, exasperatedly. He decided that it was probably best not to comment any further on all this being his fault; if there was one thing he'd learnt by being Rose Weasley's partner, it was that you certainly picked your battles. "If, by some miracle, our captor was a complete imbecile and forgot to take our wands off us, do you think I could actually reach it?"

"Don't get snarky with me!"

"Well, I'M sorry, but wasn't it me who mentioned that we should be exercising caution in the first place?" Scorpius snapped. "Harper KNEW that we were closing in on him, and _you_ were still running around like you were hyped up on Miles' autopsy fluids!"

From the low growl, Scorpius guessed that had her hands been free, this would be the point where she usually punched him. After two years of working together, he was pretty sure that there hadn't even been one case where he hadn't been physically hurt in some way, and usually by his _dear_ Rose Weasley.

Sometimes, he really wondered what went wrong two years ago, when Head Auror Potter – or Harry Potter, saviour of the Wizarding World, to others – had forced them to work together to begin with. He blamed Rose entirely! If she hadn't gone off mission those couple of years ago and accidentally cursed one of her own team in her pursuit of a murderer, she might not have found herself on suspension to begin with. Considered wild and dangerous, Harry had given her an ultimatum: work with a partner, or never be allowed out into the field again.

Despite the fact that Rose hated basically everyone she met as a general rule, she'd taken the deal. He _still_ really wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve being said partner.

"For Merlin's sake – HEY!" Rose suddenly yelled, kicking with her legs and smashing her heels into the end of their box, "IS SOMEONE THERE?" she yelled. "LET US OUT!"

Figuring that there wasn't much else they could do, Scorpius joined her in kicking and screaming. Their voices blended together as they yelled, Rose swearing every other word and Scorpius thinking of his poor cat at home, wondering if someone was ever going to feed her. They had an entire team of Aurors investigating this case; _surely_ one of them would soon realise that they were missing? Rescue couldn't be far away. Nevertheless, Scorpius still kicked and hit at the box with all his might as admittedly, it was starting to freak him out being trapped in there.

"LET! US! OUT!" Rose yelled in between kicking and hitting. Though eventually, even she gave up, slumping back onto their wooden floor, panting and no doubt with a sore and scratchy throat. "This is insane …" she gasped.

"What is holding this lid on?" Scorpius agreed, equally bewildered. "It's like – there's rocks on top – or –"

"Malfoy …" Rose's voice cut across him. There was something in the way she said his name that made him glance at her (or where he could at least feel her breath coming from, seeing as it was still pitch black). Rose Weasley certainly was without rational thought sometimes; she could lose her head with the best of them. But usually, Scorpius would see this raw determination or panic directed at something, whether it was interrogating a suspect, or firing a curse at a murdering psychopath. Without the walls to beat anymore, hearing the slight and slowly rising panic in that one word was enough to make his heart leap into his throat.

"Don't panic," he blurted out at once.

"Right!" Rose laughed without any trace of humour. "I shouldn't panic! I'm only BURRIED ALIVE–!"

"We don't know that!"

"Oh, c'mon!" Rose cried. "We know what happened to Peter, what Harper did to him! He was found six feet under, no wand, no way out! This is what Harper does to people and we were so close to getting him and you want me to NOT PANIC?!"

"Panicking will only use up our air even quicker!" Scorpius tried to reason, although admittedly, his head was starting to spin. He wasn't sure whether that was because of Rose's stress, his own, or whether the air _actually_ was becoming thinner. "We need to stay calm, think rationally–"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO THINK RATIONALLY? I'M IN A BOX!"

Oh, bloody hell.

If he hadn't already been terrified from being, y'know, _buried alive_, Rose's sheer terror would almost certainly have done it within seconds. She was always so brave, always so strong; it was one of the reasons that he was still proud to call her his partner, despite the many legal battles and paperwork she caused. Yes, despite the occasional accusations of 'excessive force' or 'borderline torture' (seriously, she had only _threatened_ to turn a suspect's limbs inside out! Sigh. _Honestly_) Scorpius was still willing to put up with her because he always knew that she would be there if he needed her.

Seeing Rose like this was making him more scared than every time he'd ever faced down a murderer during his current seven years of being an Auror put together.

But if Rose couldn't be the strong one this time, he would have to be, because there was no bloody _way_ that after all they'd been through, _this_ was going to be how he died. "Weasley! Weasley!" he called, but she was more or less just screaming now.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE! LET ME OUT!"

"Weasley!"

"SON OF A BITCH! LET ME–"

If he'd had his hands free, he would have clapped one over her mouth, but there was nothing he could do to even get her attention, let alone calm her down!

Except …

"ROSE!" he roared over her.

"WHAT?!" she screamed.

Well! She was still in panic mode, and for good reason, but at least she stopped after yelling at him. No doubt she was staring at him, as Scorpius could almost feel her half-astounded gaze through the darkness. Having her first name come from his lips felt almost … _wrong_. He didn't think he'd ever called her anything other than Auror Weasley before now, and the same principle applied for her. Calling her _Rose_ was practically unthinkable.

Which was exactly why he'd done it.

"Right," he said, letting out a huge breath. "Now that I've got you listening, there are two _very_ good reasons why you shouldn't scream."

"Enlighten me!"

"For starters, you'll use up more of our air. We won't even last twenty minutes at this rate, let alone a couple of hours. And as for the second …" For a moment, he wished he could touch her, at least reach out a hand and hold hers. Sure, he often feared her biting him or something just as easily ridiculous in such a scenario, but in this case, he felt like it would certainly help.

Anything to calm her down.

"… Weasley, you're scaring me."

She was silent for a long time. In fact, she was so quiet that he almost found himself panicking again, thinking that she'd somehow succumbed to asphyxiation before him. However, just as he'd opened his mouth and prepared to move towards her, she spoke,

"I'm sorry."

He blinked at the statement.

"Well, I guess this is a day for miracles," he mentioned, lightly.

"Right! _Miracles_," Rose snorted. "Tell me, what part of this is a MIRACLE?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe you actually apologising to me after _two years_ of you avoiding such a task?"

"Don't get all sentimental with me, I'm still freaking out, here."

"Yet, you're speaking normally and not bursting my eardrums!" Scorpius said. "In my opinion, this is as good as it's gonna get. Now, we just need to consider our options."

"What options? We're dead, we're as good as dead, Malfoy!"

"Not necessarily – Lyall said he was gonna work late tonight," Scorpius pointed out. "I can't feel my comm in my ear, so I guess Harper took that, too, which means we can't contact him. But if he's working, he's _bound_ to notice that we've disappeared."

"Effing fantastic," Rose practically growled. "Our fates rest with an idiot. We're _totally_ saved."

Scorpius rolled his eyes at her tone. Oliver Lyall – a member of their team, who also happened to be Scorpius' best friend – worked as Auror Control. While he and Rose typically worked in the field, Lyall would stay back at the office, relaying them information and orders, helping them to do their jobs from the relative safety of his tricked-out and perpetually messy desk. It was his orders that Rose usually found so much pleasure in ignoring, and after years of working with him, she _still_ found the need to call him an idiot.

Lyall might _be_ a bit of an idiot sometimes, but that wasn't the point!

"I'm serious!" Scorpius told her. "He'll notice we're missing and put two and two together; he'll figure out that Harper took us and that we're probably underground somewhere! He can use a trace of some kind, track us down until he finds us."

"You know that those spells only work over certain distances!" Rose countered. "What if we're _miles_ away, Malfoy? What if we're in bloody Scotland or Wales or something?"

"Then he'll simply go there until he IS close enough," Scorpius insisted. "C'mon, Weasley, we need to start _thinking_! If we can figure out where Harper buried us, then that means Lyall can, too! What do we know?"

"Malfoy, I just hunt the guy!" Rose said, exasperatedly. "I don't make logical deductions, I make the crazy intuitive leaps, ok? I don't know where the hell we are!"

"Yes, you do," Scorpius stressed. "I know, I'm the logical one, but I can only work out so much. I need you to do this. Peter was found in Yorkshire, his childhood home. However, we were abducted from central London. Harper's motives were to get rid of us before we could reveal that he was the killer; that logic indicates that he would want to bury us as fast as possible, likely close by. Where's the closest body of earth to the Auror Office?"

"Probably Hyde Park," Rose said. However, there was a strain in her voice, and she trailed off with a kind of murmur that Scorpius couldn't quite make out. If he could see her face, he would without a doubt be looking at her biting her lip, trying to figure something out.

"What is it?" he said, more than used to the notion, though he at least tried to keep the exasperation out of his voice this time. "You don't think so?"

"Well, sure, it's more logical," Rose sighed. "but c'mon, this is a man who buries people alive, like hell would he be effing _logical_ about this."

"You think he'd take us back to Yorkshire?"

"He's a psycho stuck in the past," she mentioned. "Mother died of suffocation with a little help from Daddy-Dearest, and it was quite clear from his psych records that he's out of it. Peter pisses him off once, and he ends up buried barely 100 feet away from her grave. He gets angry at people, they end up in the ground, just like his mother did."

Scorpius considered her words. _This_ was why they still somehow managed to work as a team; she was the one who ran on gut instinct while he thought methodically. He kept her wrangled in (admittedly, only half the time) and she got him to let loose every once in a while. Sure, they drove each other absolutely _nuts_ while they were at it, but at least in the process, they caught killers.

"See?" he told her, feeling himself smile. "This is why I keep you around."

"Oh, shut it," Rose said, a thump sounding as she apparently let her head rest back against the wooden floor of their box. "So we can guess relatively where we are. Still doesn't guarantee a rescue."

"No," Scorpius admitted. "but it's possible. We can't do anything ourselves, so our best chance at survival is seriously just staying calm. You don't happen to know how to meditate, do you?"

She snorted at that. "Sure! Like that's going to help!"

"It could buy us more time!"

"If I'm going to die, I'd rather not be begging for mercy," Rose said, hotly. "In fact, I'd much rather go out kicking and screaming!"

"_Weasley_," Scorpius groaned. "With two of us in here, any air time we've got is already cut in half! Seriously, just work with me, here?"

She grumbled and complained, but eventually, she agreed … and it lasted all but thirty seconds.

"No – I can't, _I can't_, I seriously can't do it–" she cried. With her tone getting more and more higher pitched, he could almost feel her anxiety levels rising. "I can't stay quiet, I'm going mad! You have to talk to me, Malfoy!"

"But–"

"TALK TO ME!" she shrieked. "Or I swear, I'll scream until I pass out!"

_Shit_, was the one thought he had. He couldn't think of anything that could possibly help their situation while they waited for Lyall to somehow miraculously come to their rescue. How long would it take him to figure it out? How much longer did they have? It couldn't be much, and their air supply certainly had to be dwindling …

"Look, I have an idea about how to survive for longer, and it doesn't involve you screaming," he began, warily.

"Fine," Rose sighed. "What is it?"

He wanted to take a deep breath … but thought better of it.

"You kill me."

Rose actually managed to laugh at that. "Right! Because_ that'll_ make things better."

"_I'm serious_," he said at once. "If you kill me, then you'll survive twice as long than you would have done. Maybe even buy you enough time to get out of here alive–"

"For god's sake, Malfoy! I might have joked about it in the past, but I would never ACTUALLY kill you!" Rose yelled at him, anger in her voice now. "Effing hell, Malfoy, what makes you think I could even stay alive in here with your dead body?! You're bloody insane for even suggesting it – _god damn it_, I hate you!"

"Fine! _Jesus_, it was just an idea," Scorpius grumbled.

"_Just an idea_, he says!" Rose said, dramatically. "SHIT, you don't just casually suggest your partner _kills_ you as 'just an idea'! Not only would I have absolutely no method of killing you in here, but there's _no way_ I could live with the fact. With all we've done, all the killers we've put away, I can't imagine being an Auror without you, Malfoy, so don't you EVER dare suggest it again!"

"_Ok_," he muttered at once. "Of course. I didn't think. I'm sorry, I'm sorry …"

"Yeah, well," she sniffed. "You BETTER be."

If he didn't know better, he'd say that she was crying. This scenario _really_ was not good for their preferred outcome, here; while trapped in the confines of this box, not only was their stress and the thin air likely to be affecting their heart rates and blood pressure, but the pain of having their arms behind their backs seemed to be doubling by the second. He feared that even if they did have more time left, their bodies would give out simply due to exhaustion.

It wasn't like he _actually_ wanted to die! However, it was certainly his wish that Rose at least get out of this alive and to do that, they needed to calm down (it certainly didn't help that some of Rose's words had been a spark that set his blood on _fire_).

"Ok," he said, quietly. "I'll talk to you. What about?"

"Seriously? _Anything_," Rose insisted.

While busy racking his no doubt pressured brain for a story, he almost leapt a mile when he felt a warm and solid something bump into his leg. It took only a few wild seconds to realise that it was Rose, who had somehow inched her way closer to him. Since they were lying on their sides, facing each other, it wasn't too hard for her to press up against his body. It _really_ wasn't helping in keeping his heart rate down, but he was willing to do almost anything that would increase her chance of survival. As such, he didn't say a word as she pressed her face against his chest, resting there in the otherwise silence of the box.

"Did I ever tell you about the time Lyall and I threw a party in the training gym?"

He felt her shake her head.

"Well, we did," he said. "and it was bloody _epic_. We were 21 and it was to celebrate the end of our training. Of course we couldn't let any of the heads know, otherwise there would be hell to pay and no doubt we'd all get suspended before we'd even graduated. So word got around through word of mouth. By midnight, nearly every trainee showed up! _You_ weren't there," he pointed out the obvious. "Elite Rose Weasley, already off shadowing real cases, you were simply too cool for us. But me and Lyall, we were the life and _soul_ of that party! Sparks goin' off, alcohol flowing and dirty dancing everywhere, it was a complete _riot_. I actually barely remember what happened, except one memory always stands out …"

Rose muttered, "Go on," against his chest.

"Well," Scorpius would have shrugged if it didn't hurt so much. God, Rose was curling an ankle around his – she might not have been fond of the idea, but she really _was_ going to kill him at this rate. "I got chatting to this girl, right? I was completely off my face at this point. In fact, I think the only way I was still upright was by hanging onto her shoulder! It was almost pitch black, the coloured lights flashing and music pounding, and next thing I know, I'm snogging this girl in the middle of this giant rave. I'm not even sure it registered in my mind what was happening … until I pulled away and realised that the girl was actually Lyall."

"_What_?" Rose apparently couldn't help but laugh, clearly trying to look up at him.

"I know, I know!" Scorpius sighed. "In my defence, it was back in his 'rebel' phase where he grew his hair out and it was VERY dark, ok?"

"Ohhh, that's brilliant!" Rose was definitely crying now in between her laughs, attempting to wipe her tears on his shirt. "What – _oh_ – what'd you do when you realised?"

"We were kind of too drunk to even care that night," Scorpius said, thinking back on the memory with a kind of embarrassed laughter. It was that sort of quirky story that was basically too good to ever pretend it didn't happen. "The next day, however … we promptly ignored each other and quickly agreed to not speak to each other at all for the next two months or so."

Rose snorted with laughter once more, before letting out a breath and resting her head back against him. In those moments of relating his story, he'd almost managed to forget where they were. However, without anything to distract him now, not even the feel of Rose curled around him could make him think otherwise about how, if Lyall was going to find him, surely he would have done so by now.

"… no one's coming, are they?" Rose said.

"Yes, they will, Weasley!" he insisted. "Just think about how many people care about us out there; not one of them would rest until we were found!"

"Maybe, only I can guarantee that they'll be finding our bodies."

"Would you _stop_ that?"

"_How_ can I stop it?" Rose said, shoving him slightly in anger. "No matter how many stories you tell, nothing changes the fact that we're going to die!"

"Weasley, you're starting to panic again–"

"_Of_ _course I'm bloody panicking again_!" Rose practically yelled. "Hell, I don't think I've stopped panicking ever since we woke up in this EFFING box!" She kicked behind her violently with a leg and roared out, "HARPER, YOU BASTARD! I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL!"

"Weasley–"

"No, I can't do this, Malfoy!" Rose cried, and Scorpius thought desperately, trying to come up with something to distract her, _anything_. "I can't, I can't, _I can't_–"

He cut her off with seriously the last thing he could think of: kissing her square on the lips.

Granted, it took a moment to find them in the dark; however, with her already so close that he could almost taste her, it barely took him a split second to make the decision. He pressed his lips to hers hard, cutting off her screams and hoping it would distract her long enough for … he didn't know. Something to happen? Someone to find them?

It didn't help that he kind of felt like he could kiss her forever. Perhaps it wasn't such a bad way to go.

She pulled away at first, muttering, "Malfoy–!" but he was quick to capture her lips once more, using his body to trap her against her side of the box. He kissed her again and again, twining their legs until they were dangerously close and eventually … she stopped worrying.

As far as plans went, he had to admit that this wasn't so bad … _insane_, but not bad!

With their arms still pined, he had only his mouth to work with, but suddenly, Rose was kissing him back, and he didn't even have time to think about why. Instead of desperate, it turned hungry and passionate, with gasps and tongues and scraping teeth. This wasn't the first time they'd ever kissed – it had sort of happened at varying times over their partnership, it was probably best to not get into any details – but he couldn't remember another time where it had been this primal, this _wild_. He moaned out her name, despite himself, and she reacted in a way he didn't quite expect with a particularly well-placed leg, making him let out a strangled gasp –

_Bang_.

They broke apart almost instantly. "What was – was – that?" Rose gasped.

_Bang. Bang. _

_Yelling. "C'mon!" _

BANG.

"Someone's up there!" Scorpius cried, trying not to let too much relief flood through him – they weren't out of this just yet. "Just hang on, Weasley, it might not–"

"Screw that – HELP!" she roared, Scorpius rolling away from her as she began kicking again. He wasn't sure if his inability to breathe was attributed to their lack of air, or the way she had kissed him. "LYALL, IF THAT'S YOU, HELP US!"

"HELP!" Scorpius added his voice to the mix as the banging and the voices got closer and louder.

Their box being opened and the small piles of dirt leaking in as the lid was shifted was almost lost on Scorpius. Ridiculously happy to the point of almost delusion, he thought he must've passed out in between wand light shining down on his eyes and just catching the many anxious and relieved faces of their team. He thought Rose might have been hauled up first by her uncle – hell, Head Auror Potter _himself_ had come out here! – and he might have been levitated up out of his living hell and onto the solid ground with beautiful, _beautiful_ air –

"Bloody hell, mate!" Lyall's voice was yelling in his ear. "You scared the god damned shit outta me! What the hell did you think you were doing leaving the office like that without telling anyone?!"

"W – Weasley –" he gasped. "Where–?"

"Miles and the Healer team are looking after her now," Lyall told him, his sandy-haired and usually cheerful looking face finally coming into view. Night had fallen when they'd left the office, and it was still dark now; they couldn't have been down there for more than a couple of hours, though it had felt like a lifetime. The stars, wand light, and million other voices of relieved Aurors that their own had been found safely and relatively unharmed was nothing short of _incredible_.

"I need to see her," he croaked, though he wasn't sure he could get off the ground. "Weasley–"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lyall rolled his eyes, before looking up and yelling, "Oi! Someone get Malfoy sitting up and somewhere where he can see Auror Weasley! STAT!"

Lyall, like any best friend should, was true to his word. Within minutes, the Healers had cut off the plastic tie around his wrists, releasing the pressure on his shoulders with a strangled groan, and placed him on a raised stretcher. They levitated him over to where Rose was sitting up on her own, her uncle supporting her and holding her hand.

"… Merlin almighty, Rosie!" Harry Potter was saying, fearfully. "I don't think I've ever been more terrified in my life!"

"I'll give ya a run for your money …" Rose managed to joke, warily. "Mum and Dad aren't here, right?"

"I – erm –" Harry looked almost sheepish then. "I almost didn't tell them, actually. I knew you only had hours at the most, and I didn't want them to worry as much as I was, certainly even more. But I had to, of course."

"Damn conscience won out, right?"

"They're my best friends, I couldn't _not_ tell them that their daughter was in danger," Harry said, exasperatedly. Scorpius often heard that tone from their boss' mouth in relation to Rose Weasley, but the way Harry was gently holding Rose upright with an arm around her waist gave away his relief. "God, Rosie … I love you, ok? You're a pain in the arse as an employee, but I seriously love you so much, all right?"

"Oh, god," Rose muttered, but Scorpius noticed the smile on her face. If there was anyone who could ever catch it, it would be him.

"Weasley …" Scorpius said, trying to reach out for her.

"Auror Malfoy!" Harry seemed to only just notice he was there. "Good to see you're alive, too!"

"Weasley, you all right?" was the only thing he was interested in.

"Miles checked me out," she said. It was a hint of what they'd just been through that she didn't give her usual scathing roll of her eyes. "She's done her tricks; breathing in oxygen now," she added, and when he was looking for it, he noticed the faint shimmer around her head and knew that the spell was certainly working. He would have to thank their Healer examiner and all round hero, Healer Savannah Miles.

"Good," he said.

"Auror Malfoy, your parents are waiting for you at St Mungo's," Harry told him, then. "The second we got a lock on your location, we knew we'd be bringing you back there, one way or another. Think you're ready for travel?"

"I reckon so," Scorpius said, as Healer Miles approached him with her determined stride and no-nonsense face, picking up his wrist to measure his pulse. "How did you find us, anyway?"

"You can thank Auror Lyall," Harry almost smirked. "For a Control Auror who's never worked in the field in his life, he was surprisingly nimble at hexing William Harper to the ground. He's being charged with first degree and attempted murder as we speak."

"Thank god," Rose growled. "I want to kill the bastard."

"Right behind you," Scorpius, for once, agreed.

Harry looked like he had half a mind to leap on the murder train, but as Head of Office, thought better of it. Instead, he helped Rose ease back onto her stretcher, so Miles and her team could begin to transport them safely. "I'll see you both back at the hospital," he told them. "I'll Apparate ahead, tell your parents straight away that you're both ok."

There were a few moments of chaos in between Harry disappearing, and Miles leading the team in heading back to St Mungo's. It was in those moments, that Scorpius turned his head and glanced over at Rose. Only a few feet away in the cemetery was the still open and dug up hole which might have been their grave. Just looking at it made him want to throw up.

Merlin, their counsellor was going to have a field day with this!

"Hey," he called, reaching out once more with his hand. He was glad that their arms had been released, so that he could curl his fingers around hers, gently. "I'm glad you're ok."

She didn't say anything for a moment. Then, he felt her fingers tighten and she whispered, "Me, too."

"… but I _did_ tell you," he added good-naturedly, pulling his hand away quickly. "Knew we'd get out!"

"Oh, come off it, you had no idea–!"

Maybe they _had _been better off half-unconscious. Miles certainly had a headache by the time they reached the hospital, after all.

-Fin.

* * *

A/N: This one came about because of Scorpius randomly mentioning, '... that one time we got buried alive together?' Although I'll admit that it nearly never got finished, because I had to do a lot of Googling to make sure that our Rose and Scorpius could plausibly escape this scenario and I completely freaked myself out as a result! I apologise sincerely if I affected anyone else in this way, it certainly wasn't my intention.

I originally posted this as a separate oneshot, but when I realised that I had many ideas for this little Auror-verse thing I've got going on, I wanted them to all be in the same place. Apologies if you've already read it! Again, there won't be regular updates for this, oneshots will probably just get posted whenever I happen to finally write one down.

I hope that I was true enough to some plausible reactions! I hope you all liked it, and please review and let me know what you think. :)

Until next time –

-Moon. :D


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